We, the media, did a quick opinion poll and discovered that almost 70 percent voters (read SMS senders) felt that the Sena supremo should apologise to the President.
I was among the minority. I thought Thackeray's comments were decent compared to what he has said before. I wondered why couldn't we take his comments as a cartoonist's humour.
I also wondered why hadn't the media bothered when Thackeray had made more venomous statements, like calling Congress workers eunuchs. Was it because it was not news?
When we call the President a rubber stamp, isn't it humiliating of our country's first Citizen President?
The media has always made the 'Tiger' larger than life by falling in his trap. Thackeray, knowingly, spun his speech around Kalam. Target Kalam, so that faith, terror and Mohammed Afzal get talked about.
Thackeray is a master at playing with emotions, that's why a cartoonist like him could rule Maharashtra and Mumbai.
No, the two places are not separate. Mumbai has transformed in to a state-like entity, but Thackeray's remote control and the Sena network seem to be weakening fast.
The aspirations of the Marathi Maanus have changed: this linguistic mass is now getting changed into a class within the middle class and doesn't really want to agitate on the roads like our fathers' generations used to do on Balasaheb's single 'aadesh' (order).
"If they hatched a plot of separating Mumbai from Maharashtra, my Shiv Sainiks, who are like fireballs, will leave them burnt and ravaged; we will turn them into ashes," said Balasaheb in Shivaji Park.
We didn't bother about what Thackeray said about Mumbai, and that's neglecting an emerging political issue. A recent survey asked 'Is Mumbai is of Marathis?' and the majority answer was 'no'.
How is the Marathi mind perceiving this change? Will it draw new political lines? Will this debate make Mumbai an autonomous state?
Will that be seen as Mumbai separated from Maharashtra? Or will it yet another 'Bahubhashi Marathi', a miniscule India, as its always been dubbed?
Whatever may happen history will always haunt us. Maharashtra will never forget the 106 martyrs who embraced death for Mumbai alone in1956.
Those were the Samyukta Maharashtra Movements days when thousands of Marathi middle class youths were agitating on the roads. Keshavrao Jedhe, Acharya Atre, Senapati Bapat and Prabodhankar Thackeray spearheaded the movement, which led to Mumbai being carved out into Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The movement, in a way, nurtured regional Marathi aspirations that the Shiv Sena later cashed on. Will Marathis forget this recent past?
The movement was also about the middle class man working hand in hand with the farmer. That connect between the farmer and the middle class is now lost. Rural Maharashtra's economy has gone ailing and farmer suicides have became a daily non-news item. Then where is the purpose of Mumbai being in Maharashtra? How does Mumbai contribute to Maharashtra?
The elections for municipal corporations is the battle for the over Rs 2,000-crore budgets they have. It's a battle for urban Maharashtra. Will the majority of Marathis accept that yes, Mumbai needs a huge change?
The Mumbai municipal election will answer this question. The Birhan Mumbai Corporation is now so huge that it has a budget of Rs 13,000 crore and it has spawned almost six new corporations around it.
But what about the MMRDA? Wasn't it supposed to get Mumbai new infrastructure? Where have its funds gone? The city, which contributes 34 percent of the country's direct taxes, is in chaos? Why?
Mumbai cannot be ignored if we really want to achieve the growth charts and targets set by the Finance Ministry. Only 29 percent people voted in the last civic polls-the Maximum City was the minimum city in that sense.
But if we want to save the city, vote Mumbai and vote for Mumbai! first published:January 31, 2007, 21:38 ISTlast updated:January 31, 2007, 21:38 IST
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Jai Maharashtra to all Indians and to all my friends around the globe. Mumbaikars were shocked when our leader Balasaheb Thackeray critisised our beloved President Dr Kalam's hairstyle.
We, the media, did a quick opinion poll and discovered that almost 70 percent voters (read SMS senders) felt that the Sena supremo should apologise to the President.
I was among the minority. I thought Thackeray's comments were decent compared to what he has said before. I wondered why couldn't we take his comments as a cartoonist's humour.
I also wondered why hadn't the media bothered when Thackeray had made more venomous statements, like calling Congress workers eunuchs. Was it because it was not news?
When we call the President a rubber stamp, isn't it humiliating of our country's first Citizen President?
The media has always made the 'Tiger' larger than life by falling in his trap. Thackeray, knowingly, spun his speech around Kalam. Target Kalam, so that faith, terror and Mohammed Afzal get talked about.
Thackeray is a master at playing with emotions, that's why a cartoonist like him could rule Maharashtra and Mumbai.
No, the two places are not separate. Mumbai has transformed in to a state-like entity, but Thackeray's remote control and the Sena network seem to be weakening fast.
The aspirations of the Marathi Maanus have changed: this linguistic mass is now getting changed into a class within the middle class and doesn't really want to agitate on the roads like our fathers' generations used to do on Balasaheb's single 'aadesh' (order).
"If they hatched a plot of separating Mumbai from Maharashtra, my Shiv Sainiks, who are like fireballs, will leave them burnt and ravaged; we will turn them into ashes," said Balasaheb in Shivaji Park.
We didn't bother about what Thackeray said about Mumbai, and that's neglecting an emerging political issue. A recent survey asked 'Is Mumbai is of Marathis?' and the majority answer was 'no'.
How is the Marathi mind perceiving this change? Will it draw new political lines? Will this debate make Mumbai an autonomous state?
Will that be seen as Mumbai separated from Maharashtra? Or will it yet another 'Bahubhashi Marathi', a miniscule India, as its always been dubbed?
Whatever may happen history will always haunt us. Maharashtra will never forget the 106 martyrs who embraced death for Mumbai alone in1956.
Those were the Samyukta Maharashtra Movements days when thousands of Marathi middle class youths were agitating on the roads. Keshavrao Jedhe, Acharya Atre, Senapati Bapat and Prabodhankar Thackeray spearheaded the movement, which led to Mumbai being carved out into Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The movement, in a way, nurtured regional Marathi aspirations that the Shiv Sena later cashed on. Will Marathis forget this recent past?
The movement was also about the middle class man working hand in hand with the farmer. That connect between the farmer and the middle class is now lost. Rural Maharashtra's economy has gone ailing and farmer suicides have became a daily non-news item. Then where is the purpose of Mumbai being in Maharashtra? How does Mumbai contribute to Maharashtra?
The elections for municipal corporations is the battle for the over Rs 2,000-crore budgets they have. It's a battle for urban Maharashtra. Will the majority of Marathis accept that yes, Mumbai needs a huge change?
The Mumbai municipal election will answer this question. The Birhan Mumbai Corporation is now so huge that it has a budget of Rs 13,000 crore and it has spawned almost six new corporations around it.
But what about the MMRDA? Wasn't it supposed to get Mumbai new infrastructure? Where have its funds gone? The city, which contributes 34 percent of the country's direct taxes, is in chaos? Why?
Mumbai cannot be ignored if we really want to achieve the growth charts and targets set by the Finance Ministry. Only 29 percent people voted in the last civic polls-the Maximum City was the minimum city in that sense.
But if we want to save the city, vote Mumbai and vote for Mumbai!
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